In the next race, Valiant was troubled by the wash from the 125-boat spectator fleet, a faulty backstay and a spinnaker sheet that snapped with a sharp bang, causing the sail to .
Mosbacher had to veer off sharply; in the process, Intrepid caught a blast of air from a Coast Guard rescue helicopter that wrapped her mainsail around the backstay, cost her .
Steve Squyres in Space Ref (press release) Backstay was different than anything we saw before,said Squyres. "It's a loose rock, not bedrock, so maybe it was ejected from someplace farther away, or someplace deeper. The Mini-TES spectrum is nothing wildly exotic . . . the thing...